Obama's "jobs advisor" sends some jobs to China....

[Erose999]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904772304576467873321597208.html

< article > By LAURIE BURKITT

BEIJING—General Electric Co. said it is moving its X-ray business headquarters to China to accelerate sales in the country's fast-growing health-care market, the latest sign of China's growing importance to the giant U.S. conglomerate.

The X-ray unit will be the company's first business to be based in China.

Enlarge Image
GECHINA
GECHINA
Bloomberg News

A computed tomography (CT) machine under assembly at a GE production facility in Beijing on Friday.

The business has already begun the move—which includes the unit's chief executive and three other members of its executive team—and expects to complete the process by year end, said Anne LeGrand, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare Global X-Ray. The senior leadership team's move to Beijing is aimed in part at helping develop more medical equipment specifically for the Chinese market, Ms. LeGrand told a news briefing Monday.

GE said it doesn't expect the move to result in any job losses in the U.S., where the unit has been based in Waukesha, Wis. The Wisconsin X-ray division has 120 employees. The company also said it is too early to say how many employees it will hire for the unit's new Beijing headquarters.

"As the company grows more global, it's increasingly important for us to become close to our customers," Ms. LeGrand said, adding that she expects 20% to 25% of GE Healthcare's X-ray products to be developed in China during the next three to five years for sale around the world.

As China's market has boomed for a range of products, a small but growing number of companies have moved senior executives to the country or sent them for extended stints. Intel Corp. in May said Sean Maloney, one of its best-known senior executives, would move to China from Silicon Valley to oversee the chip giant's operations here. Bayer AG unit Bayer Healthcare moved its general medicine headquarters from Germany to Beijing in March, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. of the U.S. temporarily moved its headquarters to Shanghai for five weeks starting last month.

GE has long placed high hopes on China, with CEO Jeffrey Immelt in 2008 calling it the company's "second home market." In January, the company finalized a deal with state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China to inject much of GE's civilian avionics business into a 50-50 joint venture based in China.

< / article >

GE's CEO Jeffery Immelt was appointed by President Obama as "Chairperson of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness" in February.

GE paid no US taxes last year.

Happy day-after-Labor Day everybody.

[Broderick]

1. some?

a shitload.

And PAID ZERO TAXES in the process.

We are being bilked mindlessly left and right.

[Scuba]

2. Didn't they pay negative taxes last year? Didn't taxpayer dollars go to further enrich ...

... their stockholders in London and Hong Kong?



Is this the thanks?


And is this who our President trusts?

[lonestarnot]

3. Yes, as I recall they got a fucking rebate. Sons of bitches!

[Erose999]

4. Worse, this is the guy the president has put in charge of "creating US jobs". He won't even create

US jobs within in his own damn company. One would think if he were put in such a spot as "job czar" he would try to lead by example (or that he would assume some sort of results were expected from him).

But I guess these greedy dickhead CEO types won't even create American jobs when it comes down to preserving their own reputations. Immelt is just that dedicated to his own bottom line that honor and decency mean nothing.

And this is the guy "advising" the President.

[mother earth]

5. How can you get lower than zero? This seems to be

the way of the corporate overlords, but the GOP wants them to pay less than zero?

The corporations do want a big monied China (and India, etc.), tho, more profits to gather there, don't cha know? Multiply that by other countries...they've milked what they can here. Seriously, China does need health care, afterall they've consistently screwed their own people over with a lack of labor law for one, oh the humanity the smell of money brings.

[madrchsod]

6. some of those jobs went from wisconsin`s GE division

[Scuba]

8. Healthcare division, located in Pewaukee. n/t

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. Immelt's decision is predictable

The real issue pertains to Obama's judgement.

Seems to me that Obama is either:
(1) too stupid to realize what drives Immelt's decisions - and that Immelt's priorities conflict with those of Main Street US workers; or
(2) Obama doesn't care about the implications of those drivers on Main Street jobs and workers; or
(3) Obama is angling for some high dollar corporate compensation through campaign donations and/or position after leaving office.

Immelt is exploiting the opportunities available to benefit himself and the company he manages. That's what a good CEO does.

Advancing the interests of Immelt and GE does not necessarily advance the interests of the US or its flesh and blood citizens. And that is the effect of choosing Immelt as job czar.

Once again, it is clear that Obama does not serve to advance and protect my needs and interests.

Color me unimpressed.

[kenny blankenship]

9. Oh, well, SURE! It takes a fox to *really* guard the henhouse, you know.

And you must also remember hearing this one from early 2009: "Obama is a Smartie to bring these crooks onboard, because only they know where the bodies are buried." Every sensible woodchuck and groundhog I knew could repeat that one back then, and make it sound casual and logical.